DEF LEPPARD

Def Leppard

It sounds a bit strange to write it down, but after seven years, Def Leppard is back with a new album. The marketing guys did their best to make you believe that the latest album of this quintet from Sheffield is the most prestigious in their career. And yet, after 14 tracks, you can’t but conclude that the standard-bearers of the new wave of British Metal are still masters in writing down delicious pop-rock songs. The fourteen tracks are just as simple as the title of the CD itself (Def Leppard that is). Rock 'n' roll without frills, straightforward rock pop with the highest sing-along factor.

When opener Let's Go kicks off, you immediately get the feeling the band has never been away. Not one second they try to come up with a hip sound, everything sounds just like in the 80s (e.g. vocoders), and that graces them. Dangerous sounds as simple as the song title, but it is irresistible. Pop rock at its best and only soreheads will say that’s a bad thing! Def Leppard is not even ashamed to include an old-fashioned funk riff in its metal. In Man Enough you hear some Michael Jackson and Queen, but no objection to that either!

Of course, such a record needs a slimy ballad and We Belong is the ideal choice, and suddenly it seems like Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs are still racing with their Ferrari in the streets of Miami. Invincible sounds a bit like a cover, simply because it feels like you know this irresistible pop song for ages, and the same can be said about Sea Of Love.

Battle Of My Own is a semi-acoustic ballad between Mr. Big and Guns' n Roses. A horrible description, but it sounds pretty good. And if you need to play some air guitar, then Broke 'n' Brokenhearted is the perfect song to do so, and on Forever Young you even forget your age for a moment! The album closes with the Beatles-like Blind Faith, and even though we did not have long to come up with these words: you always can give Def Leppard blind faith. Shamelessly old fashioned, but we rarely heard such a good pop album in 2015 as this one!